Education Perspectives

Classroom Leadership

I just watched a wonderful TED Talk by Italy Talgam.  A former conductor, Mr. Talgam has reinvented himself as a conductor of people in business. 

While viewing it, I began thinking about the ultimate facilitators and leaders of the world, teachers!  With good leadership skills, teachers can become masters of what I call "discover-ology"; they let students find learing from within.  How much better is that than teachers who try only to impart information.  I call them "lecture-ologists". 

I've often witness "discover-ology" in a math class where I work.  The teacher inspires learning.

This talk is indeed inspiring as well.  Mr. Talgam's metaphor is indeed fitting.

Hands-On Learning with Video Games

Here is a great video about hands-on learning through video games. Thanks to Dan Pink for this great piece. 

Intrinsic Motivation

Below is a TED talk by Dan Pink.  He advocates an approach toward motivating people that has a firm basis in science.  The implications toward education are enormous!

Ben Zander

As a follow up to my post A Beginner's Mind, here is a video by Benjamin Zander about the art of possibility.  The beginning gets to the crux of American education, but once you start watching, you will likely watch until the end.  Mr. Zander is indeed inspirational!

@ Yahoo! Video

A Beginner's Mind

"In the mind of a beginner there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few" - Shunryo Suzuki-Roshi

The beginner's mind is a Zen philosophy I embrace, and I believe it has deep implications for education. This philosophy is reflected in Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, in Ben Zander's book "The Art of Possibility", and by Garr Reynolds in his Presentation Zen blog, to name just a few. 

Do you remember how you viewed the world when you were a child?  Compare that to your thought processes as an adult.  When we are children, everything seems possible.  Then, through life and education, "possibility" becomes increasingly narrow.  The education system is designed to teach us the analytics of life...eliminating the impossible to get to the possible.  Many of us then begin to view everything in the world within that narrow thought process.  We forget what Ben Zander calls "the art of possibility".  We come to allow fear of error to consume our thinking.

What makes people successful isn't the fact that they did everything right.  For the most part, successful people have made mistakes, sometimes large ones, yet still went on to be successful.  Difference is that generally, successful people learned from their mistakes.  When fear of error consumes our thoughts, possibility becomes scarce!  That's something I struggle with, as do many of us.

In looking at local school test scores in this mornings local paper, it occured to me that our educational system is focused almost entirely on not making mistakes, on getting the right answer.  In fact, schools need to be the place where mistakes are not only tolerated, but celebrated.  Because mistakes create the possibility for learning.  Real creative thought involves asking the right questions.  Tom Chapin did a video "Not on the Test" which I posted on Fresh Perspectives.  It is a bit extreme, but illustrates the need for change. 

We are indeed short-changing our kids.  Less bureaucracy, less "No Child Left Behind", and less government interference is a good start.  Analytics are important, but fostering creative thinking is important as well.  American education is out of balance.

Influences - Broad Strokes

Three people had influenced me and helped form my notions about the changes needed in the American education system.  In this post, I'd like to paint in broad strokes the direction you can expect from this blog.

Sir Ken Robinson did a talk at TED that was entertaining but more importantly, made sense.  Worth 18 minutes of your time.

One of the best books I've read was Dan Pink's "A Whole New Mind".  It clearly shows how creativity will be as important as analytical skills.  Our educational system must change!  Check out his website.

My most recent read was Matt May's "In Pursuit of Elegance".  It isn't a book about education, but the ideas Matt generates have a correlation to the changes needed to make the American educational system world-class. 

You'll be reading about my insights in future posts.  But these three people form the broad stroke basis for many of my ideas.